Four Exposed To Aids Virus, City Tests Show

September 26, 1985|by DAN HARTZELL, The Morning Call

Four of 32 high-risk people tested by Bethlehem for the AIDS antibody have proven positive, meaning they were exposed to the AIDS virus at one time.

There's no telling how many of these people will develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but, according to the latest data, 70-90 percent of them probably can transmit the virus through intimate - usually sexual - contact.

This information was discussed yesterday at a meeting of the Bethlehem Health Board, and Dr. David Beckwith, board chairman, said the result of the city testing program is roughly equivalent to the percentage of positive tests in a study of high-risk people - primarily male homosexuals

The 12.5 percent represented in the city study compares closely to the 14 percent of positive tests discovered in the other survey, said Beckwith, a clinical microbiologist at St. Luke's.

Health Director Glen Cooper said that, as of Sept. 5, some 260 tests had been conducted statewide on volunteers believed to be in the high-risk category. Besides homosexual men, intravenous drug users also are considered at risk since the virus is transmitted through blood cells, and contaminated hypodermic needles can be a vehicle for transmission.

Cooper said that, while the city's number of 32 voluntary test recipients since the program began July 19 is still considered low, the local program has fared better, proportionally, than those in some larger metropolitan areas.

He said there continues to be a problem getting people to the city's sexually transmittable disease clinics for the test, mostly because they fear a lack of confidentiality. The program has achieved whatever success it has by adhering strictly to guarantees of confidentiality, he said.

The AIDS virus can destroy the body's ability to fight infection, and there is no known treatment or cure for the disease.

In other matters, Dr. John Snyder, medical director, said that, while more confirmed cases of rabies in wild animals statewide (46) were reported in August than in any previous month this year, the degree of the 1985 increase, compared with previous years, appears to be leveling off.

Snyder said health officials hope the epidemic which spread from the south in recent years has seen its peak and will begin to diminish. In Pennsylvania, 213 cases have been confirmed this year, he said.

The health board voted to conduct its free influenza inoculation program for the third year in 1985, scheduling clinics for high-risk people - the elderly, children with serious heart or lung disease, or adults with chronic metabolic disease, kidney disease, anemia or asthma - during October and November.

The vaccinations will be available at the following times and places, with telephone reservations requested: